Reader, Art Cockerill, has been in touch to recommend the site of Peter Goble at http://www.rma-searcher.co.uk, which has details of the admission of 11,000 children who passed through the Royal Miitary Asylum betweeen 1801 and 1892. There are also details from the surviving registers of the Royal Hibernian Military School in Dublin(1765-1924). The bulk of the records of the Hibernian school were stored in London following closure of the institution and destroyed in the London Blitz.
Art’s own very interesting website at http://www.achart.ca deals with, amongst other matters, the history of the military schools and gives biographical detail of some of the more famous students of the Hibernian and RMA (renamed the Duke of York’s Royal Military School in 1892).
Readers seeking information on ancestors who attended these schools can contact Peter who is happy to help them – email petergoble.rma@googlemail.com.
Incidentally records about the three schools are in series WO 143 at The National Archives.
I’ve come across three very different websites this week which you might like to visit.
Firstly reader Clare Gibson has launched The Army Children Archive (TACA) at http://www.archhistory.co.uk. The Archive was established to collect, record and preserve details of the unique aspects of growing up as the child of a soldier in the British Army. Although it is still in its infancy, she hopes that "the Archive and the website will eventually provide a useful source for social and military historians, and particularly that it will interest former and current army children, who, on the one hand, may find that it ignites some sparks of recognition that in turn trigger a string of memories or, on the other, may enjoy the sense of having a rich history all of their own". At present she has posted a number of interesting pages and of course Clare would welcome contributions if you came from an army family or your ancestors did.
Weather has a profound influence on the lives of our ancestors, particularly those less well off who were particularly affected by harvest failures and the resulting high price of bread. Even in late-Victorian times heavy snowfall could throw tens of thousands out of work. http://www.booty.org.uk/booty.weather/metindex.htm has pages about weather over the centuries presented in various ways from timelines comparing historical events to the weather at the time to summaries of weather extremities and oddities from the Stone Age almost to the present.
Outside work I’ve been working on a proposal for a book about crime between the two world wars. One topic I have been researching is the gangs of young men, particularly those which caused trouble in working class communities in Sheffield and Glasgow. I stumbled across an excellent website – The Glasgow Story – which explores the history of the "Empire’s Second City" in great detail (although there is not much about gangs). There are pages and pages of well-written history plus an extensive photographic library and indexes to the Valuation Rolls for 1913-1914 which provide details of the city’s ratepayers – in effect a surrogate census. http://www.theglasgowstory.com
One of the suggestions made by the satirical website Social Scrutiny to resolve the current problems at HM Revenue and Customs is that "You should also alter your mother’s maiden name by Retrospective Deed Poll. This is rather complicated, but does at least stop family historians in their tracks and will lead to the eventual collapse of the genealogy industry." Read the whole article at http://www.socialscrutiny.org/weblog.php?id=P279.
Actually, even if the proposal was seriously entertained, it would only be a minor inconvenience: deed poll records end up at The National Archives in series J 18, and changes of name by deed poll are published in the London Gazette as soon as they are issued. For more information see [url]www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/RdLeaflet.asp?sLeafletID=176&j=[/url]
One of the nice things about editing Ancestors is the excellent articles we receive from first time and new writers. I like to think that we are giving these new Richard Holmeses and Antonia Frasers a helping hand.
The problem, however, is often not so much the style but the content. Researching the subject and then making it interesting is not as easy as it seems, as I can well testify.
Which is why I’m pleased to publicise the first ever MA in non-fiction creative writing at London’s City University. It is aimed at people who wish to write narrative non-fiction, including history, autobiographies, biographies and travel books. It is unique not least because graduates will leave with a completed full-length book. And Ancestors hopes to run a competition for students and print the best results.
It builds upon City’s existing creative writing courses and offers students the opportunity to hone their writing in a central London location with access to publishers and agents, research libraries and archives.
It will be mainly run in the evening.
Applications are invited from potential students, who will need to submit 5000 words of non-fiction prose as part of the selection process. Visit http://www.city.ac.uk/journalism/courses/postgrad/cwnonfiction/entry_apply.html for more information and application forms.
The last few weeks have seen the arrival of a number of new books from The National Archives. Pride of place must go to Chris Pomery’s "Family History in the Genes: Trace your DNA and grow your family tree" which describes the increasing importance of DNA in genealogy. There is a full review in January’s issue. Another title under review is "Elizabeth and Philip: 20 November 1947" by Val Horsler, which looks at how the Royal Wedding was organised. A number of titles have arrived too late to be covered in this issue, including Simon Trussler’s "Will’s Will: the last wishes of William Shakespeare" and Katherine D Watson revisiting the greatest murder case of the Edwardian period in "Dr Crippen".
You can find out more and order titles at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/bookshop
